Beyond the Monastery Walls: The Ascetic Revolution in Russian Orthodox Thought, 1814–1914

320 Pages·2017·1.287 MB·English

by  Patrick Lally Michelson

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Beyond the Monastery Walls
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Beyond the Monastery Walls
The Ascetic Revolution
in Russian Orthodox Thought,
1814–1914
Patrick Lally Michelson
The University of Wisconsin Press
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Publication of this book was made possible, in part,
by a grant from the First Book Subvention Program
of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
The University of Wisconsin Press
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Copyright © 2017
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved. Except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and
reviews, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
transmitted in any format or by any means—digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise—or conveyed via the Internet or a website without written
permission of the University of Wisconsin Press. Rights inquiries should be directed to
[email protected].
Printed in the United States of America
This book may be available in a digital edition.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Michelson, Patrick Lally, author.
Title: Beyond the monastery walls: the ascetic revolution in Russian
Orthodox thought, 1814–1914 / Patrick Lally Michelson.
Description: Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, [2017]
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016044004 | ISBN 9780299312008 (cloth: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: 880-01 Russkai͡a pravoslavnai͡a ͡tserkov’—Influence.
| Asceticism—Orthodox Eastern Church. | Religion and civil society—
Russia—History. | Christianity and culture—Russia—History.
| Russia—Church history—1801–1917. | Russia—History—1801–1917.
Classification: LCC BV5029.R9 M53 2017 | DDC 248.4/7088281947—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016044004
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For Peter and Martha
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Contents
Preface ix
Introduction: Orthodox Asceticism and Narratives
of Russian History 3
1 Histories of Monasticism, Philosophies of Religion:
Asceticism Discourse in Russia and Europe,
1721–1856 27
2 Patristic Revival, Clerical Education: Asceticism
Discourse in the Russian Church, 1814–1865 59
3 Ideologies of Asceticism: Philosophical Materialism
and Academic Orthodoxy, 1855–1864 89
4 Orthodox Asceticism between Russian Nation and
Christian Empire, 1865–1898 125
5 Asceticism Discourse in Revolution and War,
1892–1914 171
Epilogue: Asceticism’s Afterlife in Emigration,
“Civilization,” and Scholarship 217
Notes 231
Index 293
vii
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Preface
This book has its immediate origin in the spring of 2013. Having received
a course development grant from Indiana University’s Russian and
East European Institute the previous summer, I offered a new lecture
series in IU’s Department of Religious Studies about the history of Ortho-
dox thought and practice during Russia’s imperial period (1721–1917).
Although I was aware from earlier research that asceticism was a com-
mon trope in Russian Church history and Russian Orthodox identity,
by the end of that spring semester I became aware of the fact that asceti-
cism was frequently uttered by educated clergy and laity to articulate
Orthodox answers to political, social, and cultural questions. As I began
more fully to explore those utterances in Russian-language sources, it
became apparent to me that asceticism was a key term in historical
thinking and talking about Russia. Asceticism, I learned, was an ideo-
logically charged, contextually meaningful, and highly contested con-
cept that resonated in Church institutions, as well as in venues outside
the Church. My growing interest in this topic led me in the fall of 2015
to offer a religious studies seminar on theories of asceticism, which
invited undergraduate and graduate students to explore the ways in
which philosophers, theologians, sociologists, and public commentators
in North America and Europe have interpreted asceticism since the late
eighteenth century. The more I examined the readings from that class,
the more obvious it became to me that asceticism discourse was and
still is a constant feature in historical, cultural, and religious studies,
one that corresponds to my interest in Russian Orthodox thought.
What those courses brought to light was that I had more questions
than answers. How did asceticism come to occupy a central place in
Russian Orthodox thought? And what did historical actors in late impe-
rial Russia mean when they uttered the word “asceticism”? To answer
those two questions, I had to address another set of questions. What
discursive choice fields and ideological parameters were available to
Russian Orthodox thinkers (and their critics) as they scripted asceticism
ix